Arguments

@local_variable Is the name of a variable of any type except cursor, text, ntext, image, or table. Variable names must start with one at sign (@). Variable names must comply with the rules for identifiers.

property_name Is a property of a user-defined type.

field_name Is a public field of a user-defined type.

udt_name Is the name of a common language runtime (CLR) user-defined type.

{ . | :: } Specifies a method of a CLR user-define type. For an instance (non-static) method, use a period (.). For a static method, use two colons (::). To invoke a method, property, or field of a CLR user-defined type, you must have EXECUTE permission on the type.

method_name(argument [ ,... n ] ) Is a method of a user-defined type that takes one or more arguments to modify the state of an instance of a type. Static methods must be public.

cursor_variable Is the name of a cursor variable. If the target cursor variable previously referenced a different cursor, that previous reference is removed.

cursor_name Is the name of a cursor declared by using the DECLARE CURSOR statement.

CURSOR Specifies that the SET statement contains a declaration of a cursor.

SCROLL Specifies that the cursor supports all fetch options: FIRST, LAST, NEXT, PRIOR, RELATIVE, and ABSOLUTE. SCROLL cannot be specified when FAST_FORWARD is also specified.

FORWARD_ONLY Specifies that the cursor supports only the FETCH NEXT option. The cursor can be retrieved only in one direction, from the first to the last row. When FORWARD_ONLY is specified without the STATIC, KEYSET, or DYNAMIC keywords, the cursor is implemented as DYNAMIC. When neither FORWARD_ONLY nor SCROLL is specified, FORWARD_ONLY is the default, unless the keywords STATIC, KEYSET, or DYNAMIC are specified. For STATIC, KEYSET, and DYNAMIC cursors, SCROLL is the default.

STATIC Defines a cursor that makes a temporary copy of the data to be used by the cursor. All requests to the cursor are answered from this temporary table in tempdb; therefore, modifications made to base tables are not reflected in the data returned by fetches made to this cursor, and this cursor does not allow for modifications.

KEYSET Specifies that the membership and order of rows in the cursor are fixed when the cursor is opened. The set of keys that uniquely identify the rows is built into the keysettable in tempdb. Changes to nonkey values in the base tables, either made by the cursor owner or committed by other users, are visible as the cursor owner scrolls around the cursor. Inserts made by other users are not visible, and inserts cannot be made through a Transact-SQL server cursor.

If a row is deleted, an attempt to fetch the row returns an @@FETCH_STATUS of -2. Updates of key values from outside the cursor are similar to a delete of the old row followed by an insert of the new row. The row with the new values is not visible, and tries to fetch the row with the old values return an @@FETCH_STATUS of -2. The new values are visible if the update is performed through the cursor by specifying the WHERE CURRENT OF clause.

DYNAMIC Defines a cursor that reflects all data changes made to the rows in its result set as the cursor owner scrolls around the cursor. The data values, order, and membership of the rows can change on each fetch. The absolute and relative fetch options are not supported with dynamic cursors.

FAST_FORWARD Specifies a FORWARD_ONLY, READ_ONLY cursor with optimizations enabled. FAST_FORWARD cannot be specified when SCROLL is also specified.

READ_ONLY Prevents updates from being made through this cursor. The cursor cannot be referenced in a WHERE CURRENT OF clause in an UPDATE or DELETE statement. This option overrides the default capability of a cursor to be updated.

SCROLL LOCKS Specifies that positioned updates or deletes made through the cursor are guaranteed to succeed. SQL Server locks the rows as they are read into the cursor to guarantee their availability for later modifications. SCROLL_LOCKS cannot be specified when FAST_FORWARD is also specified.

OPTIMISTIC Specifies that positioned updates or deletes made through the cursor do not succeed if the row has been updated since it was read into the cursor. SQL Server does not lock rows as they are read into the cursor. Instead, it uses comparisons of timestamp column values, or a checksum value if the table has no timestamp column, to determine whether the row was modified after it was read into the cursor. If the row was modified, the attempted positioned update or delete fails. OPTIMISTIC cannot be specified when FAST_FORWARD is also specified.

TYPE_WARNING Specifies that a warning message is sent to the client when the cursor is implicitly converted from the requested type to another.

FOR select_statement Is a standard SELECT statement that defines the result set of the cursor. The keywords FOR BROWSE, and INTO are not allowed within the select_statement of a cursor declaration.

If DISTINCT, UNION, GROUP BY, or HAVING are used, or an aggregate expression is included in the select_list, the cursor will be created as STATIC.

If each underlying tables does not have a unique index and an ISO SCROLL cursor or a Transact-SQL KEYSET cursor is requested, it will automatically be a STATIC cursor.

If select_statement contains an ORDER BY clause in which the columns are not unique row identifiers, a DYNAMIC cursor is converted to a KEYSET cursor, or to a STATIC cursor if a KEYSET cursor cannot be opened. This also occurs for a cursor defined by using ISO syntax but without the STATIC keyword.

READ ONLY Prevents updates from being made through this cursor. The cursor cannot be referenced in a WHERE CURRENT OF clause in an UPDATE or DELETE statement. This option overrides the default capability of a cursor to be updated. This keyword varies from the earlier READ_ONLY by having a space instead of an underscore between READ and ONLY.

UPDATE [OF column_name[ ,... n ] ] Defines updatable columns within the cursor. If OF column_name [,...n] is supplied, only the columns listed will allow modifications. If no list is supplied, all columns can be updated, unless the cursor has been defined as READ_ONLY.

Remarks

After a variable is declared, it is initialized to NULL. Use the SET statement to assign a value that is not NULL to a declared variable. The SET statement that assigns a value to the variable returns a single value. When you initialize multiple variables, use a separate SET statement for each local variable.

Variables can be used only in expressions, not instead of object names or keywords. To construct dynamic Transact-SQL statements, use EXECUTE.

The syntax rules for SET @cursor_variable do not include the LOCAL and GLOBAL keywords. When the SET @cursor_variable = CURSOR... syntax is used, the cursor is created as GLOBAL or LOCAL, depending on the setting of the default to local cursor database option.

Cursor variables are always local, even if they reference a global cursor. When a cursor variable references a global cursor, the cursor has both a global and a local cursor reference. For more information, see Example C.

The compound assignment operator can be used anywhere you have an assignment with an expression on the right hand side of the operator, including variables, and a SET in an UPDATE, SELECT and RECEIVE statement.

Do not use a variable in a SELECT statement to concatenate values (that is, to compute aggregate values). Unexpected query results may occur. This is because all expressions in the SELECT list (including assignments) are not guaranteed to be executed exactly once for each output row. For more information, see this KB article.

Permissions

Requires membership in the public role. All users can use SET @local_variable.

Examples

A. Printing the value of a variable initialized by using SET

The following example creates the @myvar variable, puts a string value into the variable, and prints the value of the @myvar variable.

C. Using a compound assignment for a local variable

The following two examples produce the same result. They create a local variable named @NewBalance, multiplies it by 10 and displays the new value of the local variable in a SELECT statement. The second example uses a compound assignment operator.

D. Using SET with a global cursor

The following example creates a local variable and then sets the cursor variable to the global cursor name.

DECLARE my_cursor CURSOR GLOBAL
FOR SELECT * FROM Purchasing.ShipMethod
DECLARE @my_variable CURSOR ;
SET @my_variable = my_cursor ;
--There is a GLOBAL cursor declared(my_cursor) and a LOCAL variable
--(@my_variable) set to the my_cursor cursor.
DEALLOCATE my_cursor;
--There is now only a LOCAL variable reference
--(@my_variable) to the my_cursor cursor.

E. Defining a cursor by using SET

The following example uses the SET statement to define a cursor.

DECLARE @CursorVar CURSOR;
SET @CursorVar = CURSOR SCROLL DYNAMIC
FOR
SELECT LastName, FirstName
FROM AdventureWorks2012.HumanResources.vEmployee
WHERE LastName like 'B%';
OPEN @CursorVar;
FETCH NEXT FROM @CursorVar;
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
FETCH NEXT FROM @CursorVar
END;
CLOSE @CursorVar;
DEALLOCATE @CursorVar;

L. Using a compound assignment for a local variable

The following two examples produce the same result. They create a local variable named @NewBalance, multiplies it by 10 and displays the new value of the local variable in a SELECT statement. The second example uses a compound assignment operator.